Tommy's Fall
by heavyneos
Summary: prequel to returning home
1. Chapter 1

The rangers hadn't noticed it at first, they thought he just needed his space some time to get over it and then move on. He started to spend less and less time with them to a point where he just disappeared on them each day after school. They would look for him but never find him, and then during his ranger duties he started speaking less and less until he just stopped speaking at all. Then he began getting more vicious in battles it started small kicking a monster when he was down to going out of his was to torture the beasts before destroying them. Using his blaster to cripple them taking out their legs them blasting them in non-fatal places to just injure them. Then he would use his sword and disarm them in the literal sense then if they had wings he would cut them off or a tail the same and he would use the severed limbs to beat the beast to death.

The other rangers as well as the mentor Zordon began getting concerned he wouldn't form the zeo megazord or super-megazord he would only use his red battle zord and red superzeo zord use it to brutal and lethal effect.

At home he just trained every day after school until he was called by Zordon to fight. He slept barely fore hours a night, ate enough to keep him going but nothing more. He hardly spoke to his parents any more and let no one near him in any capacity. He didn't called out his morph now nor did he do the motions to he gust clamped the two pieces of his mopher together then got on with it. He would spend time at the command centre improving his aim with his zeo blaster.

On the weekends he would spend time in Zordons special gravity chamber used to acclimatise people to a new planet now used for training. He wore heavy weights strapped to his arms and legs at around fifty pounds on each leg and arm, when training with his sword he would always go in the offensive using strong fast blows to attack his foe and would always go for a slashes towards the legs to cripple or force his opponent back.

When Tray needed to transfer his powers Jason was chosen Rocky and Adam collected him and brought him to the command centre he was in the shadows watching on as the transfer commenced when Jason collapsed he didn't rush to his side like a good friend or bro he stayed and watched on with no emotion on his face and left whilst the others fussed over him, he had left going to train not caring whether the others cared or not.

He had just spent the day training hard and went to cool down in his new meditation room shutting himself further out of the lives of his friends. Finding solace in meditation and more piece than when he slept. After an hour he was back at the grind stone he teleported himself to the command centres gravity chamber. Set it for seven times normal earth gravity and began his work out.

In the main briefing room the others watched concerned as there friend began his work out again. Watching as there friend and leader suffered in silence was killing them. None of them could connect with him any more he had severed all ties with them and couldn't rebuild them.

It was reaching a point that none of them could recognise Tommy any more his fighting style changed to a more brutally efficient. Changed his image cut his hair off in a crew cut wore or military style. Combat boots and trousers and red t-shirt. The weights strapped to his arms on show in black.

"I am getting more concerned about Tommy" boomed the voice of Zordon "he has almost completely severed him self from every body he had cared about and that is not healthy if things continue to go on like this I will have no choice but to take action by removing him from the team until such time as he has fully healed"

"You cant do that we need him he has the pivotal piece in all our megazords" shouted Adam

"Witch he refuses to combine into I am sorry but if he continues he will put the planet and lives of its inhabitancy in danger we cannot risk that" they understood but didn't voice it.

"I'll talk to him," volunteered Jason as he headed off to the gravity room.

Inside Tommy had finished going through a simplified kata arrangement leaving out all unnecessary movements when the gravity returned to normal and the heavy metal doors opened, and Jason walked in with a determined look on his face. Facing Tommy's back

"Tommy we need to talk man" he said squaring his shoulders "you need to stop this man you need to come back to us man you cant live like this, this isn't life. Look at your self come on man your turning into the machines we fight"

Tommy slowly turned around and looked into Jason's eyes, Jason into his.

Jason's eyes were full of life and glowing with passion, Tommy's eyes were cold lifeless and had none of the quality's Jason's had they were dull and empty no emotion and no sole. Then he spoke words that would shatter all who herd them in a cold monotone voice.

"Emotions are irrelevant, emotional attachments are irrelevant all that matters is the mission" his cold lifeless monotone voice that cut Jason to the core

"What's the mission?" he asked not knowing what to expect from the man wearing his bro's face

"The destruction of the machine empire to the last, the deaths of Lord Zed and Empress Rita with minimal but exactable collateral damage"

"Collateral damage those our people there humans people we are sworn to protect as rangers" he said when an energy field came around Tommy stopping him from escaping

"Tommy your mental instability is a danger to the earth and its people I am sorry but I must take your power," said the booming voice of Zordon

Tommy razed his communicator and tapped it three times

"Computer Red Zeo power DNA encoding lock"

"Confirmed"

"Zord controls lock"

"Confirmed"

"Initiate protocol Red Zeo 5"

"Confirmed awaiting your order Red Zeo 5"

"Execute now"


	2. Chapter 2

The command centre was throne into chaos the commuters began to explode the rangers moved to the far side of the command centre to escape the blasts. In the gravity chamber the force field shut down the doors sealed the two rangers into the room.

After several explosions rocked the room Jason looked to Tommy

"Tommy what have you done" he shouted

"If you are not with me you are against me" he monotone

Jason moved to stop Tommy from escaping only to be met by a strait kick to the chest. Jason landed on his back winded slowly to get to his feet; Tommy's new strength was awesome at the peak of human physical perfection. Jason sent a kick to Tommy witch to him seemed to be moving at a snails pace, he jumped up and hit Jason with his own kick hitting the golden ranger in the chest again. Tommy moved to Kick Jason when he was down but Jason caught his leg and pushed forcing Tommy on to the back foot when Jason went for a knee strike missing narrowly. Tommy made to strike at Jason's eyes when Jason rolled away from Tommy to avoid another attack putting ten feet between them.

Tommy ran forward launching his Zeo power kick that sent Jason into the wall. Rising to his feet again Jason moved just in time to avoid a strait punch to his face by mere inches but not in time to avoid a very strong back hand. That almost knocked him off his feet struggling to regain his footing before another kick or punch Tommy looked at Jason who was doubled over in pain but kept his eyes on him watching as Tommy raised his arm and teleported out in a red wave.

The door to the gravity room opened and the other rangers came running in as he fell exhausted to his knees.

"What happened?" he said between gasps for air

"Tommy he laid a code inside the computer subroutines its locked the zeo powers so we cant remove them, it also moved his red zords to a hidden location and locked them to him and him alone" said Billy as he helped Jason to his feet "its also scrambled his teleport code so we cant lock him down to find him"

"How long until we find him and how did we let him fall this far" he said as Billy led him to the medical centre.

Tommy materialized at a cave that overlooked the bay where the Dragonzord would awaken. He immediately began a plan of attack on the machine empires base


	3. Chapter 3

In the cave Tommy sat in the lotus position meditating the natural sounds of nature ringing in his ears. He reached a part in his mind that was solely white he stood as memory after memory assaulted his mind, happier times when he was with Kim his love that ultimately became his greatest weakness she had found someone else, shattering his heart and soul leaving him as he was now collapsing to his knees he did the only thing he could he cried for what seemed like days in his mind until he replaced his emotional shields.

In the real world his eyes snapped open, he felt something running down his cheek whipping it away with his hand and looking at it for a moment then discarding it like trash, he formulated his plan it took a week of observing the attacks on earth a week of watching his ex team mates struggle through battles that he watched with passing interest. He watched until he found the weakness of the machine empire one he would exploit.

It was stupid really having one robot that made the machines grow. Klank and Orbus the henchmen or bots that did the king's dirty work observing battles and when defeated making the monster grow. Tommy's plan although simple on paper would be difficult to put into practice he had tried twice to sneak up on the duo but there sensors detected him every time. They also had a squad of cog troopers about fifty enough to give Tommy problems and leaving enough time for the duo to escape.

His plan was to lure the ranger battle into the iron mine which he spent a week magnetizing in secret with his zeo blaster. Hopefully the mine would be enough to scramble the sensors and give him enough time to neutralize the duo permanently.

Tommy's communicator bleeped it was time to put his plan into action.

Fifteen minutes later Tommy was standing alone in the quarry in ranger form zeo power sword in hand waiting. He didn't haft to wait long a flight of Quadra fighters laid down suppression fire forcing Tommy to move for cover.

(Inside Tommys head)

The fighters don't stay long three passes then they fall back not even these machines aren't stupid enough to risk attacking their own troopers.

Next would be a platoon of Cogs no more than sixteen in moments Tommy is in action pulling his blaster from its holster slashing and blasting the platoon is easy fodder. Next will come the monster, its cocky only one ranger around it will take the other rangers five minutes to get the alert another five to get here.

(General Pov)

Tommy was moving fast even by ranger standards slashing at the knees of the monster forcing it on the defensive he could tell by how it moved that this beast had was an offensive type. By forcing it onto the defensive Tommy has the advantage. Clumsy oversized and slow the monster hardly had a chance using the swords power slash splitting the monster in two. Noticing the small nodule at the point where the neck met the shoulders open waiting for new data to be transmitted.

Tommy moved back into cover weighting for the moment to attack he saw it when he saw Klank and Orbus. Klank pulling a cable from the back of Orbus and began to spin him faster and faster, then at the right moment he released the smaller bot. Using his blaster Tommy shot the Klank before intercepting Orbus with the smaller robot trying to use its defences Tommy sent a half powered blast to the bot shutting it down. Before Klank and the rangers could do anything he vanished in the red energy surge of his teleportation beam.

Back at the cave Tommy began to dismantle the small Orbus not caring for the shrieks the small robot was making until finally he had the memory core using a bastardised relay he viewed the machine empires dirty laundry.

It seemed as though they only brought a small _Expeditionary__Force_ with them but that force was now depleted. A force of thirty thousand remained out of that around twenty five percent was damaged beyond repair and was being used as spare parts for the remaining forces; sixty five percent were damaged and undergoing repair but that number is steadily increasing it seemed that the moon had none of the materials that they thought it had he had only seven thousand and five hundred cogs left and they were in a staging area in the moon waiting to be deployed.

The king was no tactical genius he preferred a to wield his armies like a hammer instead of a scalpel that Zed would use. That would be his downfall he lacked subtly a cold cruel laugh emanated from Tommy, it also seemed that he only had one of Orbus and no other means to make his monsters grow. It also seemed that Orbus had the most up to date security codes for the moons security defence grid.

Mondo is going to get a surprise very soon.


	4. Chapter 4

(Command centre before Tommy's plan)

The computers were still spitting sparks and hissing.

"Man Tommy did a number on the computers" said Billy as he came from under the main computer console for the teleportation beam. "He's scrambled the targeting sensors, damaged the crystal that feeds the energy to the matter transfer". He sighed; Billy loved computers so much that during his younger years the rangers needed a translator for him. He was an expert on the computers that he came in contact with, some said he was part computer others that he was a prodigy among prodigy. He never chaired for the praise himself, he worked like everyone else to get where he was but right now he would give anything to be half of what people say because right now he hated computers.

"Is there anything you can do?" asked Rocky

"Not right now, I'm still trying to find out the full extent of the damage" he said running his hand through his hair, "I have the computer core back online and the Zord bay is now on emergency power, we can launch but the repair bay is offline as are the transporter, were lucky we moved Zordon's locater to a computer with a triple redundancy or we could have lost him to Tommy again".

Jason's face was serious, not since Tommy's evil green days had he been any more serious. The others who stood with him had never faced Tommy in open combat or they would be more worried than they are now.

"Give us a run down on the damage Billy" his computer friend nodded

"Teleportation is down, repair bay down, main computer interface down, Zord launching is online but slowed to half, some of the computers are still locked, but on the good side I've isolated the subroutines Tommy has affected but the is still bad news, we don't know where Tommy is or what he has planned. But there more good news we can track him when he morphs"

The rangers turned to Zordon looking for answers.

"Tommy has locked his morpher with his own DNA to replace him we would haft to kill him, and I am not going to ask any of you to do that" he said in his fatherly tone, "but there may be another way if we can knock him unconscious we can move him to a secure room in the med bay and treat his mental instability"

Nodding solemnly, Jason understood what needed to be done; he would need to go to that place he went when he fought that aria in his mind that he was at when he fought Tommy last.

The computers main console began to flash red; Billy sprang into action going one of the fixed consoles and began pressing buttons.

"Tommy's just morphed" he said turning to Jason slightly

"Where is he at Billy" he asked as the others crowded around.

"I can't get a proper fix but he's near the...the quarry"

"How can we get there Billy" said an impatient Adam

Ignoring him he pressed yet more buttons and a white VW beetle appeared.

(Quarry moments after Tommy's escape)

They had arrived too late, too late to stop him and too late to catch him. They felt utterly useless they now had to wait for Tommy's next move whatever it may be. They had to hope that whatever it is, it won't hurt any innocents in the process.

(the cave)

Tommy was almost ready he had the plan down but needed one more item explosives. He began to study the blue prints from the small robots core memory. The armoury was near the staging aria, to close for him to believe, one grenade or explosive would blow the whole aria apart. The plan was set now he was about execute it.


	5. Chapter 5

Using his inside knowledge Tommy hacked into the command centres security cameras, he watched stone faced as his 'friends' began planning to capture him, it was rudimentary and insulted his intelligence as well as his fighting ability.

(Command centre)

"So that's it we lure him into the open and hit him with a fading attack" said Jason "we attack then pull back making sure he follows, then we spring the trap" the team nodded.

Jason was at a quandary, could he get back into the mindset that he was in when he fought Tommy as green ranger, he remembered every sneaky, dirty, conniving and malingering trick that Tommy used, he needed to be in that place where he did everything even resorting to downright cheated to win, and he needed to own it again. He walked over to his old red uniform, the T-Rex was a strong companion and he had needed its strength to do what was necessary. Slowly and with reverence he opened the cabinet unseen by his planning friends. Slowly he reached for his old sword, the weight was a familiar and welcome sensation, this was the blade he used to defeat Tommy last time; silently he closed the cabinet he could feel the sword connect with his golden powers, the blade stayed with the European broad sword style, but the guard changed into his new symbol the guard handle and pommel changed from red to black with gold accents.

Silently he left the command chamber and made his way to one of the training dojo's, as he entered he made his way to the changing room, opening one of the many lockers he put on a training uniform.

All the planning in the world couldn't help against Tommy it didn't last time; it came down to skill with the sword and luck. He needed to become one with his blade again and so he began, with meditation.

(In the cave)

Tommy shook his head at his 'friends', he shook his head, no time for friends he had a war to fight and an empire to crush, he pondered his plan but he had no time to linger he didn't know if the machines had changed their codes so he needed to move fast. He had stolen what he needed from the military base at stone canyon. Two large bags of C-4 plastic explosives detonator caps and a single master remote keyed into the detonators, he smiled darkly he also had taken a single K-BAR knife.

Grabbing his bag full of explosives he morphed then teleported through the security net of the machine empires moon base.

The red teleportation beam filled the dark room in which he had transported, he was lucky that he had morphed they didn't need air and there was none too had here, using the map he downloaded from the little machine he had 'interrogated' and his own knowledge of the moon plaice he began his plan, the additions made to the palace were numerous and his own knowledge from his time as green ranger proved almost useless, but the little machines was invaluable.

He stuck to the shadows as best he could; he knew that the cogs used thermal imaging as there mane optics but he hoped that he could take any out that spotted him, using his map he began to place C-4 on support beams strategic corridors and communication towers and receivers.

Fuel tankers for their fighters on the fighters and on munitions slated to be deployed onto the space fleet in the moons orbit, so far he had used one and three quarters of the explosives. Security all over was surprisingly light but he put that down to the fact that the majority of the operational cogs were taking apart the non functioning ones to rebuild the damaged ones or that they were preparing for a major assault on the earth.

He reached his final destination and what he found there were the operational cogs were standing at attention awaiting deployment. None seemed active but they stood there like statues, he made his way behind some crates and towards the armoury, inside he placed his ordinance inside crates of weapons and barrels of fuel for their energy weapons

With the last of explosives set he made his way to the main place itself and to a show down with the king and queen.

(Earth power chamber)

Jason's eyes snapped, he was there the place where he was when he and Tommy met for the last time against each other on the field of battle, standing sword in hand he began to go through several worm up exorcises before he began to train for what he knew would be a the most vicious battle he may ever fight.


	6. Chapter 6

The palace was quiet, in the days that Empress Rita the halls were patrolled by two of her clay warriors called putty patrollers and each door had one guarding it, but now the palace was deserted, each step he made seemed to echo over the deserted corridors. It was so silent even the sliest sound made him jump into guard for a few moments.

He knew the layout of this place like he knew his own hand; he knew where the throne room was because he had been here during his darkest hour. As he made his way from one dark stone corridor to another he became hyper aware of what was around him, not knowing now awaited him here now that Mondo was in control of the palace.

It took him almost double the usual time to reach the familiar dark oak door, the door that was the portal to the main throne room. Moving his helmeted head to the door he began to listen for movement or voices that belonged to the rulers of the machine empire. He could hear the voices of Mondo and Machina.

"But what can we do my love he acts like no ranger we have ever met" spoke a shrill feminine voice

"I know my dear but everyone has a weakness even this red ranger, we find it and exploit it"

The conversation continued for about five minutes before Tommy decided to act, he took out the master remote and flipped the switch. The entire castle shook violently once then again as some of the C-4 was late in detonation. He smiled as he heard a heavy thud.

Tommy burst into the room materialising his sword in his hand before he ran at the king using a heavy slash towards the head the king barely moved out of the way in time, the queen moved back as far as she could to let them fight, Tommy hit the king using a punch kick combo of punch, kick, kick, punch trying to break down his defences. The king hit Tommy in the ribs with his staff, launching Tommy three feet away and making him land heavily on his back, Tommy flipped onto his feet and using the Zeo power kick launched himself at the king only for him to shrug it off.

The king by no stretch of the imagination looked like a combat model, but he held his own quite well until he finally pushed Tommy far enough away.

"You are fairly skilled for a human" he said as Tommy circled him "but you see I have recently received an upgrade" he slammed the bladed section of his staff into the ground and opened his wrist section, he pressed several buttons immediately a whirring sound began to fill the air. The king's armour began to fold away, like some macabre horror show his body began to creek like over stressed bones, his metal flesh began to peel away to reveal shining steel bones before the flesh seemed to reconfigure itself and re apply itself onto the bones. The king suddenly went from a metal fat clown of a machine into a sleek ninja looking murder machine, twirling his staff menacingly an evil gleam shining in his blood red eyes.

It amazed Tommy that such a small round machine could transform into a sleek streamlined thing; the technology that had gone into him must have been amazing.

"You didn't think that you would win so easily did you" said the king as he stilled his staff, the two went at each other moving at a speed that could only be seen as blurs, until Tommy was levelled with a kick to the solar plexus. The wind was driven from Tommy's chest as he was lifted from his feet and landed on his back with a heavy thud. His sword slipping from his grip and clattered to the stone floor, turning onto his stomach he slowly pushed himself to his feet grabbing his sword, he slowly moved in a European duelling stance, he made an immediate and effective lunge with his sword the point and another three inches pierced the kings abdomen armour, the king stopped and the whole world seemed to have stilled, using a striate kick to the chest to pull his blade from the kings guts he stood once again in his duelling stance.

The king moved to stem the flow of precious coolant leaking from the wound as blood would a human, the green liquid oozed from between his fingers as an angry snarl escaped his lips. Using his staff as support then he snapped up and using his staff like a Guan-Dao, the two began to fight again at speed Tommy had to shift through several styles before finally getting an opening to hit the king again, the blade biting into the legs of the king behind the knees. The king immediately fell onto his knees, Tommy lifted the blade to slash down at the king's neck but before the slash that would have killed him hit his wife jumped between the two the slash court his wife in the chest cutting through her chasse. The queen screamed in horror as green ooze began to spray from the wound like a sprinkler.

"Machina" shouted the king as he watched the life coolant sprayed from his wife, she then became silent and fell forward then exploded in fire, and the king was shocked silent as his wife became nothing more than scrap metal.

"Do not fret king Mondo you will join her soon enough"


End file.
